A blog covering all matters refereeing, the Premier League, Football League, Scottish football and occasionally European football

Europa League Referee Appointments: Third Qualifying Round second legs

Fredy Fautrel will take charge of West Ham’s first-ever Olympic Stadium game, while Andre Marriner and Andrew Dallas are also in Europa League action.

Fredy Fautrel to ref West Ham’s first Olympic Stadium match

Andre Marriner leads English officiating team in Cyprus

Bulgaria’s Nikola Popov in charge of Aberdeen second leg

Scottish whistlers John Beaton and Andrew Dallas handed games

Simon Lee Evans of Wales also in action

Progressing: The Europa League has reached its sixth matchday of the season, as all sides involved in qualifying bid to make the group stage

FRENCH referee Fredy Fautrel will take charge of West Ham United’s first ever game at their new Olympic Stadium home on Thursday night.

Elsewhere, England’s Andre Marriner will be the man in the middle for the tie between Cypriot side Apollon Limassol and Swiss outfit Grasshopper Club Zurich (KO 18:00 BST).

Bulgarian official Nikola Popov will take charge of Aberdeen’s decisive second leg against Maribor in Slovenia (KO 19:15 BST).

John Beaton will handle Croatian side Hadjuk Split against Ukrainian outfit FC Oleksandriya (KO 19:30 BST), while fellow Scot Andrew Dallas has been assigned to Portuguese club Rio Ave at home to Slavia Prague of the Czech Republic (KO 20:00 BST).

Fautrel – a bank manager based in Basse-Normandie – hasn’t previously ventured beyond the second qualifying round of the competition and will oversee his first game since the final day of the Ligue 1 season on May 14.

Slaven Bilic’s Hammers moved from Upton Park to the 60,000-capacity stadium in Stratford, east London, at the end of last season. Their first Premier League game at the ground will be against Bournemouth on August 21.

Established figure: Marriner has been a Select Group referee since 2005 and joined the Fifa list four years later (Picture from Sky Sports)

Marriner, from the West Midlands, will oversee his first game of the 2016-17 campaign as he returns to action after a break having been an additional assistant referee at Euro 2016.

The Sheldon-based whistler has handled 17 Europa League matches altogether and five Champions League qualifiers to date.

He received two Europa League group games last season – Lazio’s 2-0 victory at Rosenborg BK and Legia Warsaw’s 1-0 win over Midtjylland – and the play-off round tie between FK Gabala and Greek side Panathinaikos.

Marriner will be assisted at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia by Simon Beck and Harry Lennard, with Kevin Friend in control of electronic board duties as fourth official.

Popov had never ventured beyond the Europa League first qualifying round before handling the Champions League second qualifying round match between Irish side Dundalk and Hafnarfjordur of Iceland.

The 33-year-old, who was promoted to a Uefa Second Category official last December, dished out five yellow cards in the 1-1 draw on July 13.

He also oversaw his first game of the new domestic season and issued five bookings in CSKA Sofia’s 2-0 win over Slavia Sofia in Bulgaria’s Parva Liga.

The Sofia-based whistler, who has been a Fifa referee since 2012, will be assisted by Veselin Dobriyanov and Georgi Todorov, and fourth official Nikolay Yordanov – all of Bulgaria.

Derek McInnes’s Dons know they must score at the Stadion Ljudski vrt if they are to progress after the Scottish Premiership team drew 1-1 in last week’s first leg at Pittodrie.

Prominent: Beaton (left) has been a Category One referee since 2009, while Dallas is the son of former World Cup official and Uefa referees chief Hugh (Picture from Sky Sports)

(Reuters) - The return of all-rounder Ben Stokes will be a welcome boost to the England squad as he provides much-needed balance and lifts morale, team mate Moeen Ali said ahead of the two-match test series in New Zealand.

(Reuters) - An emotional Juan Martin del Potro could barely believe he had finally won a Masters 1000 series title at the 51st attempt at Indian Wells on Sunday but is determined to keep the trophies coming in his late career renaissance.